Writing a story doesn’t have to be difficult. Often times the first step is getting a fresh idea. Fresh ideas however can be hard to create. Where does one actually start?

The best way to start a story is to dig deep into your mind. Everyone has a story in them, they just have to be willing to believe it’s good enough for an audience. So now, it’s time to close your eyes and visualize your story.

Think of it as a form of meditation. You’re basically meditating until an idea comes to you. Instead of just letting the idea come to you, try thinking of something that you can actually write about. Perhaps its a novel that inspired you to write your own story? Maybe an event happened to you in your life that inspired an idea?

Jack La Lanne passed this week at age 96. I grew up watching him on TV while my mother ironed my father’s shirts. Yes she ironed and starched my father’s shirts for work. While she was ironing, I was watching Jack and doing jumping jacks and twists with him.

Of course our elementary school had physical education and we did these skills there too. We all used to go outside and play games on each other’s front yards and chase each other until dinner time.

None of us had problems with weight as children, I look at our elementary school pictures on Facebook and I see how fit we all were. Jack taught us from television, and we learned in school to have recess and to play outside.

We need to teach our children how to stay fit now. Our children are suffering from an obesity epidemic and most of it is because they are not having recess at school, or physical education or running in each other’s front yards when they get home.

Growing up now is difficult, but taking children to safe places to exercise is still important. YMCA and the YWCA are wonderful organizations with sliding scale programs to help families keep their children fit and safe.

Going to the park and letting children run and play is still very important. Teaching our children what we grew up with Jack La Lanne is essential to our future. We must curb our culture’s obsession with food and regain the joy of play.

Twenty Five Years Ago today, the Challenger spacecraft as it was rising into the air blew up. I remember watching it on TV in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic Building in Rancho Mirage, California where I was working at the time.

The whole staff was gathered around the TV and when it happened there was a silence and then a collective gasp. None of us could believe what we saw. We all looked at each other and said it didn’t just happen did it? The space program had the Apollo disaster, but nothing like this.

We all were speechless and then the TV announcer came on and confirmed it had indeed blown-up. The whole day was cloaked in gloom, not wanting to believe that these wonderful people were gone. These heroes, schoolteachers, scientists, astronauts had all lost their lives in an instant, in front of a nation on television.

My daughter was 11 months old just about to turn one. I remember when I picked her up that afternoon. Holding her tight and kissing her as if I hadn’t seen her for days. The reminder of how brief life is and how quick it can be taken away was present on my mind.

To many of us who saw the explosion, we all know where we were and what we were doing that moment and who we were with. Just as I wrote a few weeks ago about the Oklahoma City bombing. Tragedy never leaves your memory, it stays with you and is there all the time.

This was the death of many of our space heroes, and the set-back of the space program. However it did make the program safer. Our nation made it through a national tragedy and came back stronger because we all came together to make the space program better.

The Guinea Pig Diaries. For my writer friends, here is some great information from Kristen Lamb’s Blog, especially for writers on social media. You will enjoy the pictures of the Guinea Pigs too. Happy Monday.

Enjoy your life and blow a Bubble with a Whale. Yes if you have not seen this video, sit back and blow a bubble with a whale. This is the most amazing video of whales from Japan. It has been circulating on Twitter for several months.

It is very relaxing and on a Sunday, we all need to take a breath and relax and think about our upcoming week. Blow some bubbles and release some stress. Look at all of the fun these whales are having.